Departure
by Igorina
Summary: Pepper's leaving Tadfield to save the planet, but before she goes Adam's got a few things he needs to get off his chest. An AdamxPepper ficlet.


Disclaimer: I own none of the characters of settings to be found herein.

A/N: Just another little Adam/Pepper ficlet I wrote a couple of years ago and forgot to post here.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"You really should have said something before this." The words were spoken with a good deal of frustration and no small amount of irritation.

For a moment Adam stared down at the nauseatingly swirly carpet that covered the floor of the departure lounge. "I'm sorry Pepper," he said quietly, voice utterly devoid of its usual self-assuredness. He'd known that this would probably happen; but he also knew that he couldn't let her go without saying something.

"I mean," Pepper continued, sounding suspiciously like she was about to go into full on rant mode, "the sodding plane leaves in twenty-minutes. Don't you think you might have said something, oh I don't know, a few months ago, before I signed up to go to sub-Saharan Africa?"

"I tried to."

"Tried to! And what stopped you?"

Adam inwardly winced, part of him wishing that he hadn't quite so wholly sworn off using his powers for the purpose of looking inside people's heads. "Well, you've been going out with Greasy Johnson since the last time we broke up."

"What are you talking about?" Her eyes narrowed and an angry, puzzled expression settled on her face. "Since when have I been going out with Greasy Johnson?"

"You mean you haven't been?"

"Of course not. What made you think that we were…." She trailed off. Adam could almost see the flash of realisation hit. "It was because of that holiday in Brighton, wasn't it?"

"When you said that you were going on holiday with him I thought that there must be something going on. And you always seemed to be hanging around together."

"Adam," she said slowly, "Greasy's gay."

"Oh."

"I was the only person he thought he could talk to about it. Fuck knows why, we hated each other when we were kids, but I suppose that he thought that if I didn't like him it was for the right reasons."

"I didn't know."

"He wanted it kept quiet. Well, until a fortnight ago; that's when he came out to his parents. His mum's been hitting the Valium ever since, silly cow."

Adam tried to stifle a small grin. Pepper's opinions might err on the side of liberal, but nobody could ever accuse her of being non-judgemental.

"Look, I've got to go." she said, voice suddenly taking on an uncharacteristic gentleness "It's something I have to do. It's not that I don't care about you. And…. and I wouldn't be completely adverse to the idea of us getting back together again if I wasn't doing this. But after all the time I've spent ranting about the plight of AIDS orphans, I can't refuse to do anything when the chance comes along to help some of them."

Adam nodded. It wasn't the response he'd hope for, but it was a damned sight better than the one he'd been expecting. "I understand."

"Maybe when I get back - if you haven't met somebody else, of course."

He shrugged. "Yeah, maybe."

She gave a small trying-to-be-a-smile. "Bye Adam."

"Bye Pep."

As she turned to go, clutching a bag that was far too large to be considered hand luggage by any reasonable standard, he felt something inside him sink. Then the idea hit. It wasn't a very well thought out idea; and if he was honest the thought of it terrified him to the core. But it was an idea nonetheless.

"Pepper, wait. I could come with you."

She instantly spun around, somehow managing to keep the oversized shoulder bag from pitching itself across the lounge. "Adam you've never left Lower Tadfield for more than a week before; and this is for eighteen months. Besides, you need to sign up to the program and go through the candidate screening process and do all the training, not to mention having the medical. You can't just decide to hop on the plane with me."

"But if I could, would you want me to."

"Yes, but-"

"Then I can sort everything else out when I get there. As for Tadfield, well, as much as I'll miss it it'll still be there when we get back." And he knew that this last bit was true. No matter much it might hurt to be parted from what had more or less been his spiritual home since birth, he believed with absolute certainty that it would be waiting for him when he came back; and when Adam believed that hard in something it was pretty futile for the world to even attempt to suggest otherwise.

"But what about Dog, Adam?"

Adam grinned. "Oh, Dog won't mind. He's used to extreme heat."


End file.
